The Hyderabad High Court has asked the Andhra Pradesh government to file a case of murder in the killing 20 alleged sandalwood smugglers. The men were killed a few days back by police and special forces in Chittoor forest. The concerned court has questioned as to why the AP government has not filed a case of unnatural death under IPC Section 302. B Gopala Krishna Reddy, forest minister of Andhra Pradesh, has strongly refuted the allegations that the 20 persons killed by the forces were “fake encounter”. He also claimed in an interview to have proof that the twenty slain people were not mere woodcutters but sandalwood smugglers.

After writer Shobha De was heckled by Shiv Sena cadres for taking a jibe at Maharashtra government's order of screening Marathi films in multiplexes during prime slot (6pm to 9pm), AAP has claimed that Sena's move to bring privilege motion against De is ridiculous. Preeti Sharma Menon, national spokesperson of AAP, acknowledged the fact that regional movies do need support but for that the government can’t ask business entities how to run their businesses. She also added that the Maharashtra government instead should create special facilities for promoting Marathi films and give tax sops.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde, while speaking at Atlantic Council, suggested Indian Government to focus on reforming domestic product and labour markets. She also referred to the Indian economy as "growth bright spot" and highlighted economic difficulties and stagnation faced by Russia, Brazil, and China. Lagarde also pointed out political and economic turmoil in the Middle Eastern countries. IMF Chief’s comments come days before IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings to be held from 17 April to 19 April. The concerned meeting will be attended by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

10-Apr-2015Business

TRAI Slashes Roaming Rates

TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has mandated TSPs (Telecom Service Providers) for offering roaming tariff plans after it reduced upper limit of tariffs for both national roaming calls and SMSes. As per reports, while the national roaming outgoing call tariffs have been reduced from Re. 1 per minute to Rs. 0.80 per minute, national roaming outgoing local SMS rates have been slashed from existing Re. 1 to 25 paise per message. Inter-circle outgoing long-distance voice calls and SMSes on national roaming have been decreased from Rs. 1.50/minute to Rs. 1.15/minute and Rs. 1.50/SMS to Rs. 0.38/SMS respectively.

Urban Ladder, a popular online furniture retail company, received investment of around Rs 312 crore or $50 million from Sequoia Capital. Others who invested in Urban Ladder are Kalaari Capital, SAIF Partners, Steadview Capital, and TR Capital. MD of Sequoia Capital India Advisors, Gautam Mago, said that he is looking forward to work with co-founders of Urban Ladder Rajiv Srivatsa and Ashish Goel to create a long lasting business that has a vision to make houses beautiful by providing quality home products online. Urban Ladder also received personal investment of undisclosed amount from Chairman Emeritus at Tata Group, Ratan Tata, last year.

Dissident Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav told media that he and other dissident leaders including Prashant Bhushan are organising 'swaraj samvad' or ‘open dialogue’ on 14 April and it is not an attempt to break AAP. While stressing on the undemocratic way adopted by the Arvind Kejriwal group to expel dissenting leaders from top posts of AAP, without even issuing show cause notice or waiting for replies on levelled allegation of ‘anti party activities’, Yadav told media in Lucknow that “dialogue never breaks anything but joins it”. He also informed the press that till now 3591 people registered to attend the ‘swaraj samvad’ event, out of which 661 are from Uttar Pradesh itself. Arvind Kejriwal defended ‘expelling decision’ by referring to hatched conspiracies and crossing of all limits.

10-Apr-2015Politics

PM reaches France; To Meet French President and Business Leaders

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached France on Thursday night, kickstarting his three-nation (France-Germany-Canada) tour. Modi is scheduled to spend four-days in France and will hold discussions on the stuck 126 Rafael deal with President Francois Hollande. He is also expected to meet business leaders of France and make a pitch for Make in India. One of the most talked about events during the tour will be 'Naav pe charcha', a boat ride by the two leaders on Siena river to discuss on some critical bilateral issues. Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs, said that Hollande and Modi will discuss on nuclear, defence, and all issues of strategic importance.

10-Apr-2015Sports

Chennai Super Kings Win Match Against Delhi Daredevils by One Run in a Nailbiting Finish

Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium witnessed a thriller as Delhi Daredevils’ South African player Albie Morkel’s effort almost snatched the match from Chennai Super Kings. Batting first, CSK put up a score of 150 runs on board at the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs. Chasing a 151 runs target, Delhi Daredevils put up a brave fight with Albie Morkel leading the effort with a 73 runs knock. Even after he hit a six and a four in the last over, DD’s innings ended at 149/9, falling short of CSK by 1 run.

Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis duo carried on their winning streak by advancing to the quarterfinals of USD 731,000 Charleston WTA clay court event’s women’s doubles segment. The Indo-Swiss duo clinched the match from the Australian sisters Arina and Anastasia. While Sania-Hingis lost the first set to Arina-Anastasia by 6-7, they were quick to make a comeback and win the second and third sets by 6-3, 10-5. In the quarters, Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis pairing will take on Spanish-Kazakh duo Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedovain. Yaroslava Shvedovain-Anabel Medina Garrigues pairing defeated Lisa Raymond-Madison Keys duo in straight sets 7-5, 7-5 to reach the quarterfinal.

10-Apr-2015Science and Technology

Lenovo P70 Launched in India for Rs 15,999

Lenovo ultimately launched its P70 smartphone in India, one and half months after launching it in China. As per media reports, this new smartphone boasts of 4G LTE connectivity and a massive 4,000 mAh battery capacity. Lenovo P70 gives users a maximum standby time of 696 hours on 3G networks and maximum talk time of 18 hours. Other features of this smartphone are Android 4.4 KitKat OS, 5-inch HD IPS display of 720x1280 pixels resolution, dual-SIM (micro) feature, 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek (MT6752) processor, Mali T760-MP2 GPU, 2GB RAM, 16GB in-built storage, up to 32GB expandable storage, among others. P70 will be available in India from April 14 and is priced at Rs 15,999.

10-Apr-2015Others

Union Government takes Stringent Action against NGO Greenpeace India

The Union Home Ministry on Thursday came down heavily on NGO Greenpeace India, which was on intelligence radar for quite sometime, by freezing its seven bank accounts and suspending the NGO’s license for six months. This means Greenpeace India will not be able to receive funds from abroad. The notice issued by the Government of India says that the concerned actions were undertaken as the actions of Greenpeace India violated Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, thereby “prejudicially” violating economic and public interests of India. The order issued by the Home Ministry also says that the concerned NGO’s license will be cancelled permanently if it fails to present a satisfactory presentation to GOI.

10-Apr-2015Others

There is a Huge Dispute with India over Arunachal Pradesh, says China

When Hu Chunying, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, was asked about India’s decision to extend AFSPA in Arunachal Pradesh, she admitted that there is a “huge dispute” on China-India eastern border. She also said that on China-India boundary issue, China’s stand is to make joint efforts in maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas and in turn create favourable conditions for negotiating the border question. The comment came a day before the Annual Defence Dialogue between India and China scheduled for Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit China next month.